‘Terrifying’ staring fish shocks onlookers: ‘New fear unlocked’
An unusual fish was discovered washed up shore — and people want nothing to do with it.
The longnosed stargazer was found in Singapore buried face-up in the sand within shallow water, open-mouthed and peering toward the sky.
Dennis Chan shared a clip of the discovery to Instagram in a wild video that garnered 53.3 million views and 1.2 million likes as of Monday morning.
“An uncommon and fascinating sight, these quirky fish bury themselves in the sand with only their heads exposed, seemingly gazing at the stars while waiting for unsuspecting prey,” Chan told What’sTheJam.
“They are similar to stonefishes and scorpion fishes, which means they also possess venomous spines that can deliver painful stings.”
Chan filmed the creature from different angles, and in each one it was looking up at the sky — until the fish seemed to start gulping water and burrowed itself farther down into the sand.
According to FishBase, there are more than 50 species of stargazers found in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans — and one stargazer genus, the Astroscopus, has organs that produce electricity.
The bizarre fish is sometimes spotted on the Northern shores of Singapore, typically buried in the sand with just its eyeballs popping out.
People viewing the clip were terrified and disturbed by Chan’s “pretty terrifying” find.
“Unfind it,” one person urged.
“i’ve never despised an animal… before this one,” a user commented.
“This is now my sleep paralysis demon,” a commenter wrote.
“I would die if I was walking in the water, stepped on that, looked down and saw that. Like, literally pass away,” another said.
“I hate this fish,” someone declared.
“When they say plenty of fish in the sea, this is what they look like,” another quipped.
“New fear unlocked,” one added, no doubt echoing many others’ thoughts, too.
